U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,415, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a machine having apparatus for splining an annular thin-wall sleeve of a power transmission member by meshing die and mandrel teeth with the sleeve located therebetween so as to form splines in the sleeve. This spline forming process takes place in a rolling manner as the mandrel on which the power transmission member is mounted rotates upon movement of a pair of toothed dies in opposite directions on opposite sides of the mandrel. An end wall of the power transmission member is clamped against an end of the mandrel during the spline rolling process so as to insure precise forming of the splines. Clutch hubs for automatic transmissions of road vehicles is one usage for which this spline forming process has particular utility in replacing prior impacting operations used to form clutch hub splines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,922, which is also assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses apparatus having toothed dies with different groups of teeth that cooperate with a toothed mandrel to form splines in a thin-wall sleeve of a power transmission member by the rolling process discussed above. Each toothed die includes a first tooth group of farther spaced teeth that form a first set of splines in the thin-wall sleeve in cooperation with the mandrel, and a second group of closer spaced teeth of each die thereafter cooperates with the mandrel to form a second set of splines between the first set of splines while meshing with the first set. Finally, the splined sleeve is again meshed with farther spaced teeth to provide correction of any out-of-roundness.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,237, which is likewise assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses an automatic loader for a machine that splines thin-wall sleeves of power transmission members by the rolling process discussed above.